Hong Kong Leader’s Speech Skirts Appeals for Democracy

HONG KONG — The chief executive of Hong Kong, in his annual policy address on Wednesday, called for greater government spending on education from kindergarten through college, but said little in response to appeals here for greater democracy.

The chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, also said the government would step up financial assistance to the elderly, provide more spaces in government-subsidized nursing homes and seek to make housing more affordable.

But Mr. Leung said little about how the city would conduct its next election for chief executive in 2017. Officials in Beijing have said they may for the first time allow every adult to vote in that election, instead of restricting suffrage to a small committee chosen by interest groups mostly aligned with Beijing.

Local allies of the Chinese Communist Party have also said Beijing wants to limit the names on the ballot in 2017 by retaining some version of the current nominating committee. That committee is dominated by loyal supporters of almost any policy sent down from Beijing. Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under pledges that it would have a fair degree of autonomy.

The government here has begun a public consultation on how to redesign the electoral system.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief secretary for administration and its second-ranking official, said in a separate news conference for foreign correspondents that Mr. Leung’s administration sincerely wanted to amend the city’s electoral law to allow all adults to vote. But the administration must comply with a provision in the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, that requires the creation of a “broadly representative” nominating committee.

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Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive of Hong Kong, said little about calls for greater democracy during his annual policy address.CreditJerome Favre/European Pressphoto Agency

Pushing changes through the Legislative Council of Hong Kong will not be easy. The pro-democracy political parties want the general public to be able to nominate candidates, but they are divided over whether to strike any compromises. The pro-Beijing parties want a fairly small, elite nominating committee that will be acceptable to the Hong Kong public, but they have their own differences as well.

Mrs. Lam said that although she had dined with more than 60 of the 70 members of the legislature, finding consensus between the two camps was very difficult. “At the moment, the gap is very wide between the two,” she said.

Mr. Leung said at a separate news conference after his policy address that he did not wish to specify a new approach for now. “As the sitting chief executive, I have the responsibility to make sure that this job is done well,” he said.

Democracy advocates here have begun an “Occupy Central” movement that calls for filling the streets of the city’s business district with protesters each day starting on July 1 to demand full democracy.

Mr. Leung expressed concern about the city’s chronic housing shortage, which has worsened as wealthy mainland Chinese families have bought homes in the territory.

“I often think, if a kindergartner asks me, ‘Where will I live when I grow up?’ what answer should I give?” Mr. Leung said. “ ‘Nowhere’ is definitely not an acceptable answer.”

Mr. Leung promised to step up the pace of rezoning land for residential construction — an issue because the government has been considering whether to allow buildings on some of the city’s green spaces, and whether to reclaim government-owned land leased by a sprawling private golf club popular with the city’s elite.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Hong Kong Leader’s Speech Skirts Appeals for Democracy. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe